


In Reality Great

by BlueShell



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas in Japan, M/M, Tendou Has Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 15:30:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8996326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueShell/pseuds/BlueShell
Summary: It’s their first Christmas together, and Goshiki gives Tendou a gift.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a Secret Santa gift from the askhqchibis's tumblr page. I'm the Secret Santa for noellovess, and she asked for either TenGoshi or KuroLev - and I went with the TenGoshi because my Shiratorizawa feelings are paining me right now. I was glad to have this opportunity, and I really hope you enjoy it! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
> 
> Note 01: Christmas in Japan is usually a time you spend with your lover rather than your family. TV Tropes has a nice page on it if you want to know more about it.
> 
> Note 02: Tendou with low self-esteem is one of my headcanons - because you can't tell me a guy spends his entire life being called a creep and walks away just fine from it. That said, his opinions about himself are his, not mine - I think he's kinda awesome. 
> 
> Note 03: Title comes from a quote from Pindar: "Every gift which is given, even though is be small, is in reality great, if given with affection." I sorta gave a different spin to it inside the fic, though.

Over the years, Satori had always prided himself on his ability of reading people. It was the one thing he was always sure he did right, the one thing that would never leave him hanging – his true _talent,_ so to say. Most of the time, when he had to think about future occupations, he would see himself in some position where he could use those skills: a professional middle blocker, or a private-eye detective… or maybe an international investigator!

…So, yeah, it sort of amused him that in the end he was studying to be a doctor and had the most transparent person on the surface of the Earth as a boyfriend.

It was Goshiki’s first Christmas in Tokyo, and the first Christmas they would spend as a couple, and Satori just knew there were a million things going on inside that cute little head. His boyfriend was unusually silent, kept fidgeting with his jacket, and tried to avoid Satori’s stare by looking at the waitresses, his coffee, the menu, the café’s decorations, the other patrons, and basically anything else but the guy he was on a date with.

Satori’s optimistic side said that Goshiki was probably worried about the Christmas gift he was carrying in his inside pocket, and about making that night special, because Goshiki was nothing if not an over-achiever.

The pessimistic side… He wasn’t going to listen to the pessimistic side. “Goshiki, if it makes you this nervous, you can hand me the present now and I’ll tell you if I like it.”

Goshiki went instantly red and started throwing his arms around. “Whaaa—whaaaa—of course I’m not nerve—nervous, Satori-san! Why – I mean – what – why, why?”

Satori couldn’t help the obnoxious laughter that overcame him – and started hitting the table with one fist when those arms crossed and that anxious blush became the cutest pout in existence.

“Seriously, love,” he said, wiping his eyes, “I’m sorry, you just have the _best_ expressions, I swear to God—”

“Wha—arghh— _Satori-sannnn—”_

And Goshiki pushed his gift into Satori’s hands, leaning his forehead on the table and hiding his head between crossed arms.

The package was badly wrapped in garish pink wrapping-paper; it was shapeless and soft, and when Satori pressed it, he could feel the little wool stitches making noises against one another. After observing Goshiki for a moment, and making sure he was watching with one eye hidden between his arms, he tore the wrapping open… to find a pair of gloves.

A pair of _mittens,_ to be more exact. 

“My God, Goshiki,” he said, turning the mittens around, examining them. They were dark red with two black lines on the wrist area, and they were _huge_. They’d fit perfectly.

“I know, OK!” Goshiki shouted, raising his head, full on ‘agitated hen’ mode again. “I know it’s weird, I mean, who even gives _mittens_ , oh my God, but you never wear gloves and your hands are so pretty and I just can’t—”

Goshiki stopped as soon as he realized what he had just let slip, but Satori’s hearing was _flawless._ He turned his head _very slowly_ to his boyfriend. “…What did you just say, sweetie?”

The blush had come back with a vengeance on Goshiki’s face. “…Nothing,” he mumbled.

“So…” Satori wiggled his fingers. “…my hands are _pretty?”_

Goshiki bit his lip. He seemed a moment away from bolting from the table.

Satori placed the mittens carefully on the table. He slid his arm across the smooth granite surface, still wiggling his fingers, and took one of Goshiki’s – smaller, blunter, well-worked – hands between his.

He had always been the guy who bullied dragons. “…So you like it when I do _things_ with my hands, do you?”

He honestly expected Goshiki to deny it vehemently, to push him away and start protesting again – so he was caught completely by surprise when his boyfriend went crimson, pressed his legs together, and nodded just a little bit, caressing Satori’s middle finger with a hesitant index.

_Oh._

And Satori didn’t really know what to say to _that_ – so he just stared as Goshiki fetched the mittens and started pulling one over his left hand, with so much care and focus you would think he was trying to become a brain surgeon, or something. He adjusted it on Satori’s hand, ran his fingers over Satori’s wrist and forearms – and frowned a little bit.

“Should’ve bought gloves with fingers,” he said, more to himself than to Satori – and kept caressing the calluses on his boyfriend’s hands, like it was completely normal to be that fixed on those spidery white things.

Satori swallowed dry, opened his mouth, closed it again. Slowly, he intertwined his fingers with Goshiki’s – eyes fixed on the minute changes on his face.

“You really like my hands, huh,” he concluded, a little baffled. Throughout the year, he’d been scared Goshiki would finally realize he was the creep everyone else told him he was and leave… but there was no way he could mistake the fondness on his boyfriend’s face for anything else. “…Why?”

Goshiki considered the question with unnecessary solemnity. “They’re just… pretty? I – I like your fingers, I think. They’re long and – you know – always so neat? And these—” He rubbed his thumb against the calluses on the base of his fingers. “I like these.”

“They’re _calluses,_ Goshiki. There’s nothing to like about them.”

“Of course there is, Satori-san! They’re here because – because of every ball you ever blocked. I – they always remind me of that. I really like them.”

Oh, no, no, Satori couldn’t be blushing, _couldn’t_ be blushing, _blush go away_ …

“And I always remember how you taught me the right way to tape my fingers – I still tape them like you taught me, you know! – and that it was the first time I thought I might have a crush on you – when I saw your hands like that.”

His boyfriend seemed to realize how much he had said – and that Satori had been watching the tenderness on his eyes for about a minute now –, and turned away quickly, staring at the waitresses again. Which was good, because he wasn’t noticing he had turned Satori into goo a few moments before.

He couldn’t help but look at those hands, the ones he’d always used to break the hearts of his enemies. There was a mitten in one hand, the other one was bare, and it was… strange, to look at them like that, like they could actually bring something other than that twisted kind of joy.

Like Goshiki’s affection could change things and make them great somehow.

“…I really lucked out with you, didn’t I?”

“…Does that mean you like them, Satori-san?”

There were a lot of things Satori wished he could say, stuff he wouldn’t be able to put in words – not there, in public, just twenty minutes before the movie session started. So instead, he said: “They’re the best mittens I’ve ever gotten,” and bit his lip to stop himself from adding those were the _only_ mittens he’d ever gotten. The way Goshiki’s eyes sparkled was worth it.

He got up to pay the bill, leaving the small gift he’d purchased in Goshiki’s hands – and came back from the cash counter to see him with his mouth open wide, cheeks red, and an expression of pure glee on his face, as he waved with the Cyndaquil plushie. “Satori-san, how did you know, how did you know it was my favorite Pokémon?”

“I used to be called the Guess Monster, you know.” It was hard _not_ to know when Goshiki made it his mission to announce his love for it loudly whenever it won a battle, but Satori decided he could keep some of his mystique. “Let’s go, we’re gonna be late.”

He did not take his mitten off, and did not put the other mitten on. Instead, he carefully wrapped it on the hideous pink wrapping-paper and put it on his pocket, waiting till Goshiki was standing by his side to open the door of the café so they both could leave. Outside, he held out his hand to his boyfriend, and, for once, did not make fun of the redness of his cheeks (after all, his own were just as red). He let their fingers intertwine before placing both of their hands in that same pocket with the woolen glove.

And, because that burning thing inside felt like it was about to burst, he placed a gentle kiss on the corner of Goshiki’s mouth before pulling him down the snowy street, basking in the warmth of those reality-changing eyes as they walked hand in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> [My Tumblr!](athousandblueshells.tumblr.com)


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